Eclipsed Horizon — Chapter 12: "The Fragments We Denied"
The infirmary lights buzzed like faint static.
Cael blinked awake, the white ceiling above him rippling with the hum of the medical field. His Pulseband glowed dull amber — a suppression state. His blade and uniform were gone. Only silence remained, broken by the distant rhythm of Zephyr's engines.
Lyra sat on the bed beside his, knees drawn up, still wearing the torn combat harness from Halvion. Her gaze was fixed on the floor.
When she finally looked at him, her expression was unreadable.
"You were out for six hours. They said it was resonance recoil."
Cael rubbed the side of his temple. "Feels like I was pulled through two timelines at once."
"You were," Lyra muttered. "We both were."
The automatic doors opened with a hiss — Seraphine Aurel entered, flanked by two security drones. Her uniform bore Zephyr's insignia, polished and cold.
"Cael Drayen, Lyra Vance. By order of Commander Lyss, you are under internal observation for anomalous resonance behavior. You'll remain within Zephyr's medical sector until further notice."
Cael sat upright. "Observation? For saving the city?"
Seraphine's tone didn't shift. "Containment, not punishment. You touched the Horizon Core. The last person who did that tore half the sky apart."
Her words hit like static through the chest. Lyra flinched, the Pulseband on her wrist flickering blue-white. "You think we caused the breach?"
Seraphine hesitated. For a moment, something human cracked through her composure. "No. I think you're the only reason it hasn't swallowed us yet."
---
The command spire was dim, all holograms muted to preserve secrecy. Arden Lyss stood before the sealed archive labeled PROJECT HORIZON — a relic from the Resonance War, forgotten by most of Zephyr's generation.
Seraphine entered quietly after delivering her orders.
"You've seen it, haven't you?" Lyss asked, her tone low.
Seraphine nodded. "The Horizon Core. It wasn't a weapon. It was an echo anchor — a way to preserve fragments of human resonance after death. The founders tried to trap consciousness itself."
Lyss's hands clenched behind her back. "And they succeeded."
The hologram flickered, displaying two resonance profiles — overlapping yet distinct. Subject 01: Cael Drayen. Subject 02: Lyra Vance.
Their energy signatures spiraled around a shared nucleus labeled 'Eclipse Synchronization Event — Year 93.'
Seraphine whispered, "They were there before Zephyr was founded. Their current bodies are… echoes. Reconstructed through the Pulseband network."
Lyss's expression darkened. "Then the breach isn't reaching for them."
Her gaze turned toward the fractured sky.
"It's calling them home."
---
Back in the infirmary, Cael leaned back against the sterile wall, his voice barely audible. "You felt it too, didn't you? When the breach opened."
Lyra nodded slowly. "It wasn't just light. It was memory. Like something buried was trying to wake up inside me."
Cael looked down at his hand. The faint, intertwined rings of the Pulseband shimmered — not as technology, but as something older, alive.
A pulse that wasn't his own moved beneath his skin.
"Lyra," he said quietly, "what if we're not supposed to exist?"
Her lips parted, but before she could answer, the entire station trembled — alarms flaring in crimson waves.
A voice echoed over the comms:
> "Unstable resonance detected. The fracture is expanding — direct correlation to Subjects 01 and 02!"
Lyra's eyes widened. "They're blaming us."
Cael stood, the air around him vibrating with a low harmonic hum. "Then maybe it's time we stop running from what we are."
He pressed his palm to the glass wall. The Pulseband flared white, cutting through the suppression field.
Far above Zephyr, the sky split wider — and for a fleeting moment, the reflection of another world shimmered beyond the breach.
A city of light, broken and inverted, calling to them through the static.